The Astronomical Observatory of Calar Alto, located at 2168 m altitude in the Sierra de los Filabres (Almería), is the largest astronomical observatory in continental Europe and the second largest in the northern hemisphere, after the facilities of the Roque de los Muchachos.
The observatory is an infrastructure of the Hispanic Astronomical Center of Andalusia (CAHA), an organization managed by the Junta de Andalucía and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia of the CSIC.
The observatory has several facilities such as:
- 3 telescopes of 1.23, 2.2 and 3.5 m opening, respectively,
- gamma ray detector, and
- Monitoring system of Bolides, which patrols the entire visible sky from the Observatory.
The CAHA facilities also include telescopes from other organizations:
- a 1.5 m telescope at the National Astronomical Observatory,
- a Schmidt camera at the Hamburg Observatory in Germany,
- a 60-cm robotic telescope from the Centre for Astrobiology of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
